Birmingham City Council meeting highlights: July 10, 2018

During the Birmingham City Council Meeting on July 10, 2018, the City Council voted on the following items:

1. An Ordinance approving, and authorizing the Mayor to execute, a Real Estate Sales Agreement with SPT Parking Deck, LLC, under which the City will sell property located at 2001 Morris Avenue and known as the “John Hand Building Parking Deck” to SPT Parking Deck, LLC for a purchase price of $1,000,000.00 and further authorizing the Mayor to execute a statutory warranty deed and such other documents and instruments as are required to finalize the sale of the property.Was this item approved? Yes

What does this mean? This parking deck is attached to the John Hand Building, which is partially owned by Shipt. Selling the parking deck to SPT Parking Deck, LLC (a subsidiary of Shipt) will allow Shipt to ensure that they have parking rights to the building long term. The company is seeking to hire 881 new employees over the next 3 years, and want their new hires to have comfortable and easy access to their offices.

Next Steps: For more information, please contact the Office of the City Council at 205.254.2294

———
2. An Ordinance to establish an Amnesty Program for the payment of certain outstanding minor traffic, parking and non-moving violation tickets from July 17, 2018 through September 17, 2018.

Was this item approved? Yes

What does this mean? A two-month amnesty period has been approved by the Council for residents to pay off minor traffic, parking and non-moving violations without additional fines and other other penalties from July 17 – Sept. 17. For more information on the amnesty program, please call 205 254 2161 or vis https://www.birminghamal.gov/municipal-court/

Next Steps: For more information, please contact the Office of the City Council at 205.254.2161.

———
3. A Resolution authorizing the Mayor to execute a Project Agreement with Shipt, Inc., under which Shipt, Inc. will undertake a project to maintain and grow its headquarters in the City by hiring an estimated 881 new employees and will implement the City’s newly developed Talent Investment Program (TIP), Talent Acceleration Program (TAP), and Talent Optimization Program (TOP) as part of such project, and the City will provide incentives to Shipt of up to $1,762,000.00, payable over a term of up to five (5) years on the basis of $2,000.00 per each new employee, with such funding to be used by Shipt, Inc. as reimbursement for the cost of implementing TIP, TAP and TOP, with the City’s incentive payments to be capped at $800,000.00 for the first year and $1,000,000.00 for each subsequent year, subject to the overall payment cap of $1,762,000.00.

Was this item approved? Yes

What does this mean? An estimated 881 new jobs are expected in the city as part of the incentive package for Shipt Inc. that was unanimously approved by the Birmingham City Council; the average salary of those positions is expected to be $50,000. Shipt Inc., a Birmingham-based tech company that was acquired by Target for $550 million last year, recently announced their intentions to maintain and grow their headquarters in Birmingham.

The workforce investment strategy is threefold, according to Dr. Josh Carpenter, Director of the Office of Innovation and Economic Opportunity for the City. Collectively it will be known as the “Putting People First” program.

Talent Investment Program (TIP): Provides additional funding for the company to recruit high-demand, hard-to- reach occupations.

Talent Acceleration Program (TAP): Designed to take workers who may be low-skill and low-wage and set aside funding for those employees to access new tuition pools and learn new skills while furthering their education.

Talent Optimization Program (TOP): This component is designed to help the company hire local talent. It pushes additional funding to the company as a way to hire graduates from Innovate Birmingham graduates and residents of the city. It creates a pool of funding to partner with universities and other local entities to train mid-level managers, a group that Carpenter said there is a shortage of in Birmingham (70 percent of Innovate Birmingham participants are city residents).

Alabama Today will be the first place Alabamians of influence go for an inside look at breaking statewide, political and business news. Led by Apryl Marie Fogel, a political activist with over a decade of experience, the Alabama Today team includes freelance news reporters, as well as guest columnists from around the state.